Age of Conan Developer Funcom To Open Montreal Studio
Norwegian developer and publisher Funcom, which focuses heavily on massively multiplayer online games, will be opening a new studio in Montreal, Quebec, assisted by Investisseement Quebec, the company announced today.
Funcom develops and operates the MMOs Age of Conan and Anarchy Online, and is responsible for The Longest Journey series. Its next project is the modern-day conspiracy-themed MMO The Secret World.
The studio will be headed up by Ole Schreiner, previously Funcom's VP of operations. "We are excited about the opportunity that Montreal represents to our company, not only because of the great incentives offered by Quebec, but also the authorities' strong commitment to training qualified video games personnel and building a video games cluster in Montreal and Quebec," said Schreiner in a statement.
Montreal houses Ubisoft's largest development studio, as well as an Electronic Arts studio, the independent developer Artificial Mind and Movement, and numerous other game companies.
According to a Twitter post by The Secret World director Ragnar Tornquist, "a large and important part of the TSW team will be located in Montreal." Added the designer, "I'll need to brush up on my French."
Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas said, "Montreal has established itself as one of the world's most important locations for video game production, and we are looking forward to taking part in that success."
He added, "In addition to strengthening our North American presence, the new studio will take advantage of the great incentive programs offered by the Quebec region, incentives that makes Montreal one of the most cost effective locations in the world for developing MMO games. This will in turn allow us to better balance our costs, making it possible for us to continue to expand our investments into the MMO segment."
